By KERY MURAKAMI, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Updated 10:00 pm, Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels cruised to an easy victory Tuesday night and looked forward to a second term in which he said he plans to focus on major transportation projects, such as replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel, increasing affordable housing and improving public education.

About 200 of Nickels' supporters were in a celebratory mood at Ivar's Acres of Clams on the waterfront as results throughout the evening showed him with a sizable lead over little-known former University of Washington associate professor Alfred Runte, who'd charged the mayor had emphasized downtown and South Lake Union over other neighborhoods.

The party was a sharp contrast from four years ago, when Nickels went to bed on Election Night deadlocked with then-City Attorney Mark Sidran. Nickels suffered through weeks of recounts before eking out one of the closest mayoral elections in the city's history.

"It was a lot more exciting four years ago," Nickels said, noting that he had trailed Sidran after the first count of absentee ballots. "I like this a lot better."

Early in the evening, Runte seemed resigned to losing, but he said he had accomplished what he set out to do. "We raised the issues (of attention to neighborhoods) and it turned out a lot of the community agreed with us," he said.

Indeed, the only drama expected this year was whether his challenger would win enough of a protest vote to embarrass the mayor.

Nickels appeared headed to surpassing the amount of support -- 55-60 percent -- that independent campaign consultants said he needed to avoid an embarrassing showing after outspending Runte $499,289 to $12,795.

Nickels' first four years in office were surprising given his promises of doing things the "Seattle Way" when he was first elected -- a theme to which he clearly harkened in holding his party at Ivar's.

But the image of Nickels as a softy was largely a caricature for a politician who'd survived the King County Council. Almost immediately after taking office, Nickels asserted the power of his office, even limiting information City Council members could get from policy analysts, so there was no question who ran City Hall.

The result was hardly the collaborative style many expected. Nickels said it was necessary to get through a recession-tight budget and to get the city to focus on the basics again.